Recently, my daughter’s third grade class was tasked with singing at her school’s Veterans Day assembly. She wanted me to attend, perhaps because she wanted to tell other kids about her father serving with the Army in the war in Afghanistan. I didn’t want to attend a “Thank you for your service” rally, frustrated and disgusted as I am by the pointless and destructive way that President Joe Biden laid to waste everything we fought, suffered, and sacrificed for in Afghanistan by pulling out of that country precipitously, for no reason, betraying Afghan allies to the Taliban in August of 2021. But eventually, I gave in and attended.

It was a good assembly, coordinated by a former Army National Guard band member, Staff Sgt. Shaun Kelly, about whom I told you in April of 2022. A band played Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” A Girl Scout troop presented the flag. All rose for the national anthem. I used to nearly weep with pride during the anthem. Now my composure’s threatened by the shame of the realization that America has lost war after war for 80 years.